Mayor La Guardia built this pool to help with the Depression. He talked to FDR to get the money to build it. It was a beautiful oasis that didn't cost anything to go to. It was a mile long, starting with a wading area then getting deeper. You could teach yourself to swim.

I swam everyday, it was free until noon. Every night I would go to watch the diving practice. Kids from the neighborhoods would go on to become Olympic divers. The pool was our babysitter.

Rita Egan

My parents used to take me and my siblings there, from our infancy to our teen years. During my teen years, my friend and I would walk there from where I lived (on 36th Street and Astoria Boulevard). We would watch the cars and motorcycles go by on Shore Road.

I now work near Astoria Park. Once in a while I will walk down by the water and sit on one of the benches and think of many years ago, and people I knew way back then. (April, 2011)